What happened to the travelers of the "silk roads" is what has always happened to the men and women who are the protagonists of eni's missions in every country of the world. People who have left in search of energy and every time, while travelling, have met and talked with far away and different worlds. The exhibition "Black on White" tells about eni and a part of its recent research and exploration history through a thread of words and images running on white walls like the pages of a journal.

Black. Black like a thread of ink that writes and takes note of fragments of the history , better yet, of the histories of eni explorers. A thread of words that flows on walls that are white. White like the pages of a journal, like a world yet to be discovered. Black on white, indelible, so that it remains in the people's memory. "Black on White" is the exhibition project that tells about eni and a part of its recent research and exploration history. The authors are four young artists under 30 each showing his own sensitivity. New eyes to look into this part of life of the company. Four explorers themselves who left for a journey through the experiences and histories of eni's explorers of old times, running through their traces. A journey through the materials kept in eni's historical Archive, through the memory of the pioneers, through the finds, documents, photographs and black and white films. Fragments of memories, imagined again today, portions and "vibrations" of inner worlds set in a new history.

The thread of the tale...

Black on white. The ink line is the flow, the sign to follow in order to understand the meaning of the tale. A guide to find one's way, to reassemble and give a meaning to the collection of evidences, images, objects, documents, sounds the eni's men and women have produced, put together and collected during their journeys.

The mark runs through the perimeter of the setting, taking up different shapes, once becoming a text, once the outline of a far land that gives rise to images and memories, once again a box or a drawer which contains who knows what surprise... Following the thread for the visitor means starting a trip, a little journey which does not follow a time sequence but is focused upon the importance of the subject, which will not lead him to a destination, to a final point, but to the discovery of a part of eni's world.

A four-side tale

The "Black on White" tale is not arranged in a linear way. The black thread connects four main subjects, in which the tale is broken down into four narrative lines.

eniwhere: wherever. The limitless world of eni's exploration in the world. All the areas of the world reached by the expedition men. A section where the content is represented by the places and civilizations with which eni has operated.

eniway: in any way. The challenge to places and to the most difficult and complex environmental and cultural conditions has developed in the company's dna an extraordinary capacity to adjust and start relations and exchange values.

enione: people and their value. Business adventures, but first of all adventures of men, of their knowledge and know-how, as well as of their sensitivity and fragility. The section focuses upon the description and profiles (real or false) of the protagonists of the expeditions.

enitime: deeply different times and social contexts, today still experienced by each one with the same spirit. At any time, from the 50's to date, the six-legged dog expresses its own opinion in a consistent way.